APSU Baseball beats Tennessee Tech 7-3 making coach Gary McClure the OVC all-time wins leader

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Baseball

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University baseball coach Gary McClure became the Ohio Valley Conference all-time wins leader — in his first attempt — Friday night at Raymond C. Hand Park, but more importantly the Govs continued their winning ways in conference play defeating Tennessee Tech, 7-3.

The win was the 777^th for McClure — in his 26^th season — as he breaks the tie with former longtime coach of Murray State, Johnny Reagan, who led the Racers from 1958 to 1993.

As for Friday’s game, it didn’t take Austin Peay (25-5, 8-1 OVC) long to get on the scoreboard against Tennessee Tech starter Tristan Archer (5-2), who came in with a 1.20 ERA in OVC play, scoring twice in the bottom of the first inning.

Rolando Gautier got things started by hitting the first pitch he saw back up the middle for a single. He would move to second on a sacrifice by Dylan Riner and to third base on a ground out by Jordan Hankins.

That brought up Craig Massoni, who blasted a 0-1 pitch over the head of the Golden Eagles center fielder for a double — scoring Gautier for the 1-0 advantage.

The Governors would tack on an unearned, with Cody Hudson hitting a slow roller down the first base line – for an infield hit — that was picked up by Tech catcher Jordan Parris, who’s throw to try to get Hudson short hopped the first baseman, getting away, and Massoni came in with the second run of the inning,

Austin Peay would double its lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the third inning, on a two-run home run to center field by Hankins, which also scored Gautier – who led off the inning by getting on base after being hit by a pitch. It was Hankins fifth home run of the season.

The score would remain that way until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Govs came up with their third two-run inning of the game to go up 6-0.

Hankins would start the inning with a single up the middle and move to third on a one-out double by Hudson. That brought up Reed Harper, who laced a ball past a drawn in Tennessee Tech (21-9, 10-3 OVC) infield and into left field driving in both Hankins and Hudson.

Tennessee Tech would get on the scoreboard in the seventh, scoring three times, to cut the Austin Peay lead in half, 6-3. Daniel Miles would draw a walk to start the inning and move to second base on a single by James Abraham.

Lee Ridenhour (5-0) would get the next hitter to foul out, but Michael Morris followed with a single to center field – that got under the glove of Riner – and rolled all the way to the fence with Miles and Abraham scoring and Morris standing on third. Morris would score the final run of the inning, coming in off a groundout by Parris.

Austin Peay would get one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of single by P.J. Torres and Gautier, followed by back-to-back walks to Riner and Hankins – with Hankins’ walk forcing in Torres to make it 7-3.

Ridenhour got the win going eight innings, while giving up six hits and three runs – one earned – while striking out a career-tying nine and walking three.

Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech will continue the OVC series; with a 2:00pm April 6^th contest.

Box Score

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
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Tennessee Tech...... 000 000 300 -  3  7  1
Austin Peay......... 202 002 10X -  7  9  1
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